What The Monks Can Teach Us (Part 2)

The monastic period of church history was somewhere between A.D. 500 - 950. It was a dark time in the world. The Roman Empire was in steady decline, and the culture was wicked and godless. The early monks were so opposed to the decadence and wickedness of the world that they physically rejected it. They went into the desert and lived hermitical lives, seeking God in the wilderness after the fashion of John the Baptist.

Soon, however, some monks began living in community. Most notably, Benedict of Nursia established monastic communities as "a school for the Lord's service" (Prologue, Rule of St. Benedict, hereafter RB). Benedict wrote a short rule for the order and instruction of monks in monastic communities. In the first chapter, he describes the four kinds of monks.

• Coenobites
• Anchorites
• Sarabaites
• Gyrovagues

Two are described favorably and two are not. The coenobites and anchorites are cast favorably. Coenobites are those monks who live in communities and serve under a rule and an abbot. Achorites are those hermits, who are well-trained by communal life to go off and fight the good fight alone.

Benedict takes issue with the sarabaites and the gyrovagues. The Sarabaites are "the most detestable kind of monks" (RB, ch. 1). They do not live under a rule or endure the experience of testing. They have no abbot, but choose to live in small groups or alone, and do as they please. "... they take their own desires and pleasures as their laws, calling their every whim holy and claiming that whatever they do not want to do is unlawful" (RB, ch. 1). The gyrovagues "spend their whole lives wandering ... always moving from one place to another and never remaining in the same place, indulging their own desires and caught in the snares of greed" (RB, ch. 1). If we break down the latin for gyrovagues we get one word for circle and another for wander, essentially saying that these kinds of people are ever wandering around in circles.

Probably, the first thing that the monks can teach us is that living in community is essential to growing spiritually and developing the character of holiness necessary for the Lord's service. We must be grounded and disciplined, "tested like gold in the furnace," as Benedict put it. Of course, the apostles set the church up to be this kind of community. Hebrews 10:24-25 says,

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another...

The New Testament sees a role for leadership like that of the Abbot, who shepherds and oversees the community (See 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13; Hebrews 13:17; 1 Peter 5:1-4, etc.).

Today, many evangelical Christians see little or no need for a real connection to a local faith community. The whole doctrine of the church is missing from the theology of much American Christian thought. Far too many of us are wandering from one community to the next (church-shopping and hopping). Many of us are too sure of ourselves, thinking we can go it alone or surround ourselves with only those few others who agree with us and are like us so that we are never challenged or forced to accommodate in any way. The monks can teach us the value of stability in a faith community, and the need for submission to leadership and guidance from others. These lessons will counter the individualism and pride that is woven into the fabric of modern American culture.